title: [Clinical relevance of haptoglobin/IgG index and Boyer's score to the differential diagnosis of bacterial and viral meningitis].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The meningitis is one of the most severe diseases in children due to its mortality or sequels. However, timely knowledge of whether the infection is bacterial or viral in origin and applied a specific therapeutic would be beneficial for the patients and clinician. The haptoglobin/IgG index and Boyer's score have been use in this purpose.
  
  
  METHODS
  39 pediatric patients, 14 suffering from viral meningoencephalitis and 25 from bacterial meningoencephalitis were study. Boyer's score and Hp/IgG index were applied in order to evaluate its diagnostic accuracy. The clinical relevance of haptoglobin/IgG index and Boyer's score were compared by the analysis of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no association between Boyer's score and the cause of the meningitis. The sensitivity and specificity of haptoglobin/IgG index were de 71.4 and 64%, respectively. The same parametric to Boyer's score were de 28 and 100%. Increased haptoglobin/IgG index presents bigger precision for the differential diagnostic of the bacterial and viral meningitis than the scale of Boyer according to the curves ROC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The index haptoglobin/IgG showed its diagnostic superiority with relationship to the scale of Boyer to establish the origin of the meningoencephalitis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio Central de Líquido Cefalorraquídeo (LABCEL), Facultad de Ciencias Médicas Dr. Miguel Enríquez, Ramón Pinto 206, Luyano, Ciudad de la Habana, Cuba, CP 10400. anoris@infomed.sld.cu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Noris-García
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Dorta-Contreras
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González-Hernández
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bu Coifu-Fanego
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Padrón-Gutiérrez
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Padilla-Docal
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Agüero-Valdés
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fundora-Hernández
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006242:Haptoglobins; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007223:Infant; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D008587:Meningitis, Viral / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D006242:Haptoglobins; D007074:Immunoglobulin G